If you are tired of parenting from a place of default, one that leaves you feeling guilty or causes you to show up in ways you never intended to, NOW is the time for you to take that next step in your parenting journey. Here are 3 things you can do TODAY to work towards becoming the parent you want to be.

Around the time my toddler turned 2, I began to hear a lot of comments about “the terrible twos.” A phrase I had heard long before, but didn’t fully understand until become a parent myself. I recall my God child going through that age and it being pretty rough, and so it went with my own child. As we started to embark on the journey that is the infamous age of 2, I began to reflect on the WHY behind the phrase.

Charlie turned 18 months this week and I wanted to share some of the insights I’ve gained since becoming a mama with 2 under 3.

In its essence, these parenting styles encourage us to humanize our children by validating their emotions and experiences through understanding, empathy, and respect, while also validating that the adult also has their own emotions and experiences. The practice of parenting with intention empowers us to pause, acknowledge that we too struggle as adults during challenging moments that feel uncomfortable, so that we can better show up for ourselves and our kids.

We’ve all been there. At the store, park, or other public location when our little one has a full blown meltdown or our older one is just refusing to comply with our requests. Your heart is racing, you’re doing the best you can, but you’re frustrated and you’re starting to feel the not-so-subtle glances of strangers who you just know are judging you and your parenting capabilities. Your tone changes as your jaw tightens and all of a sudden, just like your little one, you’ve lost it.

No judgement here—it happens to us all!

It was amazing to see how much my mindset, mood, and even my body transformed as I was less focused on a specific goal and more focused on being intentional in what I was able to do at this moment in time. If you’ve ever wondered about why setting intentions are so great or how they’re different from setting a goal, I invite you to read on!